In Plants vs Zombies 2, to get some stars you must plant less than a given number of plants.
In those levels, do Pea Pod upgrades that go onto existing Pea Pod count as extra plants?
The Encyclopedia seems to indicate this way - it explicitly refers to "multiple plantings" and "repeatedly planted in the same space". Also, I have experienced "losing" the star level when I had zero plants to plant left and I planted a Pea Pod upgrade.
However, I'd like an official answer based on some sort of PvZ documentation to confirm my observations and guesses.